Amway for games?

Big Fish Games — a Seattle casual game publisher and distributor — today is introducing a new online service that will allow its customers to make money by referring their favorite games to friends.

Dubbed My Big Fish Games, the free service allows people to receive cash rewards every time their friends make a purchase.

It sounds a little bit like Amway for games.

Take for instance this sentence from the press release:

When a friend makes a purchase, either immediately or at a future date, the player who referred the friend receives 25 percent of the purchase price. If their friends also join My Big Fish Games and create their own Game Spaces, the initial referrer will receive 25 percent of their friends’ purchases plus 25 percent of the commissions their friends earn from their own game spaces. This will create a self-sustaining network effect of friends referring friends, referring friends, and so on.

Ken Wells, vice president of marketing at Big Fish Games, said the program was started to reward the company’s customers and could turn into a substantial money maker for some people. He added that there are “no costs, no risk, no pressure.”

Customers also can redeem their rewards to purchase games at Big Fish or, beginning in October, donate their proceeds to select charities.

Could this just be the beginning of multilevel marketing on the Web? Imagine if MySpace or Facebook got into this business, where members were rewarded for recommending a song, toothpaste or any other product or service.

Amway for games?

Big Fish Games — a Seattle casual game publisher and distributor — today is introducing a new online service that will allow its customers to make money by referring their favorite games to friends.

Dubbed My Big Fish Games, the free service allows people to receive cash rewards every time their friends make a purchase.

It sounds a little bit like Amway for games.

Take for instance this sentence from the press release:

When a friend makes a purchase, either immediately or at a future date, the player who referred the friend receives 25 percent of the purchase price. If their friends also join My Big Fish Games and create their own Game Spaces, the initial referrer will receive 25 percent of their friends’ purchases plus 25 percent of the commissions their friends earn from their own game spaces. This will create a self-sustaining network effect of friends referring friends, referring friends, and so on.

Ken Wells, vice president of marketing at Big Fish Games, said the program was started to reward the company’s customers and could turn into a substantial money maker for some people. He added that there are “no costs, no risk, no pressure.”

Customers also can redeem their rewards to purchase games at Big Fish or, beginning in October, donate their proceeds to select charities.

Could this just be the beginning of multilevel marketing on the Web? Imagine if MySpace or Facebook got into this business, where members were rewarded for recommending a song, toothpaste or any other product or service.